View Full Version : PSP Go!Explore
Brought this yesterday and I am very happy with my purchase. Argos doing Go!Explore plus disc, car charger, car mount for £99.
Had no problems getting me from home to work! :)
Graham M
25-06-2008, 14:52
Its a bit chunky for a sat nav though wouldn't you say? :) I think the £99 would have been wiser spent on a Tom Tom One GB v3 surely?
kryogenik
25-06-2008, 15:13
You can't play SOCOM on a TomTom though.
;)
You can play SOCOM on your PSP whilst your TomTom guides you home though...
Can't play SOCOM whilst your 'navigating'
Of course, it is obviously silly to play SOCOM whilst driving ;)
Its a bit chunky for a sat nav though wouldn't you say? :) I think the £99 would have been wiser spent on a Tom Tom One GB v3 surely?
Well it could well be argued and a lot of people that could be the better option.
Personally I like the big screen display the PSP gives me, and the fact that I can pop it off the mount and play some FF7 Crisis Core at the end of my journey! :) I think you are right, Sony could work on the price, but I prefer all in one rather than carting around multiple peripherals all the time.
Why are Argos selling this when I have had it on back order from Amazon for what seems like eternity (in reality it's only been just over two months) ... OK, it's only costing me £25.99 but I am tempted to cancel and spend the extra at Argos if it's still available
I have read reports that the start up time is a little slow for the GPS, is this correct?
@ Tod - any issues that you'd like to share with the unit?
Why are Argos selling this when I have had it on back order from Amazon for what seems like eternity (in reality it's only been just over two months) ... OK, it's only costing me £25.99 but I am tempted to cancel and spend the extra at Argos if it's still available
I have read reports that the start up time is a little slow for the GPS, is this correct?
@ Tod - any issues that you'd like to share with the unit?
Argos are only selling it at their "Extra" stores. Will Amazon sell it for that price? I have my doubts. There were 3 flavours - GPS and disc, GPS disc car kit, gps disc car kit and psp. Maybe the Amazon one will be without the car kit?
Sometimes (not always) it does seem to take a bit of a while to re-establish where it is if you have turned it back on from sleep mode - I will keep you informed on this as I have only had it a couple of days though. If you switch on from off - load the software from UMD, it pretty much locates itself straight away (albeit you have to wait for it to load of course!)
No issues with it yet, works pretty well - even warns you if you are speeding!
I suspect that the kit I am purchasing is only the GPS unit and UMD but am not too sure
I have checked with Amazon and they have said that they will honour the price I originally purchased at, I note that currently the option to buy is disabled on Amazon, when I last checked it was available for something like £89.99, this was two weeks ago (ish) but after holidaying in Sri Lanka can't be sure
I have had an email from Amazon saying that delivery has been delayed ... again! This is the third one now ...
Still, if I hold out I might get a bargain.
I'm not surprised that returning from sleep mode takes a while to re-establish location, that makes sense to me, however I'd be interested to know whether loading from the UMD was faster/slower than loading from the memory stick, perhaps that would save battery power?
I'm not surprised that returning from sleep mode takes a while to re-establish location, that makes sense to me, however I'd be interested to know whether loading from the UMD was faster/slower than loading from the memory stick, perhaps that would save battery power?
I will take the maps and system info off the disc and give it a go this lunchtime, see if there is any noticeable difference.
---------- Post added at 14:29 ---------- Previous post was at 13:04 ----------
After taking the data off the memory card it makes the menu movement slow, however once you are on-route you notice no real difference to the performance. The slow down on the menus however is quite bad when looking through the stored destinations (tourist attractions, restaurants etc).
The system gives you 4 different items you can store on the memory card. For me it is best having maps (approx 150MB) and system data (approx 18MB) so total 168MB. You can opt for 3D buildings (50MB) and additional voices (60mb) to be stored also, but I see little point doing those items.
Tod - thanks for that, I'm still looking forward to having mine.
I've been using Tom Tom on a battered XDA IIs with a bluetooth GPS receiver for some time, before that I had Wayfinder on a Nokia 6600 (hence the BT receiver) and way back when, I even used GPS with a laptop in Europe whilst touring on my motorbike.
Suffice to say I think GPS is the best thing since the last best thing and to combine it with another brilliant piece of kit is an excellent idea
Well done, Mr Sony!
One thing I noticed, is that it does take a good 40 seconds or so to locate the satellites when you first put it on, and you have to be stationary until it does. Not sure how that compares to other systems. I said in an earlier post that I thought it was better from off, this is not the case, it is quite happy to start from standby - you just have to keep still for the first locate which I wasn't doing!
you just have to keep still for the first locate
I don't like the sound of that, how does it re-route if you deviate from the suggested path? That would be something that could be an issue for me
I don't like the sound of that, how does it re-route if you deviate from the suggested path? That would be something that could be an issue for me
It is only when you first turn it on, after that it more or less instantly "re-calculates route" if you make a wrong turn etc.
In my limited experience of using GPS receivers, it has always been the case that so called 'cold starts' have always had a delay when initially searching for satellites, I have experienced a delay of nigh on three minutes in some scenarios
I'm not overly fussed about the time it takes to locate satellites from said 'cold starts', I'm more concerned with the, shall we say, 'warm starts', where the PSP returns from standby
It would seem from your explanation that there's nothing to worry about, I guess I'll just have to wait until Amazon sort themselves out and see what's what
kryogenik
27-06-2008, 14:43
http://www.argos.co.uk/wcsstore/argos/images/241-0642231SPA69UC461843M.jpg
Is that the BT unit on top? Can you use a separate BT receiver?
handyman
27-06-2008, 15:39
Is that the BT unit on top? Can you use a separate BT receiver?
I thought it was a hardwired job?
With gps it will always take some time to get its bearings. The 3g iphone (only 2 weeks now :D) uses assisted gpsn where as well as booting up the gps circuit it triangulates your position on cell antennas ans also see's if it can work out where you are through wi-fi hotspots. This should speed up the location aquisition from cold/ warm start.
kryogenik
27-06-2008, 16:01
It plugs into the mini USB socket on the PSP. Just wondering if a separate receiver can be used, as it'd be no good to me if not - I have a heat reflecting windscreen and the GPS signal can't penetrate it. I ahve to use a separate one.
And as my beloved SPM M5000 has just popped it's clogs, I'm in the market for a new Satnav.
In my limited experience of using GPS receivers, it has always been the case that so called 'cold starts' have always had a delay when initially searching for satellites, I have experienced a delay of nigh on three minutes in some scenarios
I'm not overly fussed about the time it takes to locate satellites from said 'cold starts', I'm more concerned with the, shall we say, 'warm starts', where the PSP returns from standby
It would seem from your explanation that there's nothing to worry about, I guess I'll just have to wait until Amazon sort themselves out and see what's what
Just wanted to check you know what I mean by "standby". When you flip the off button up quickly and the PSP goes off (into standby), - as opposed to holding it up where it goes off completely and you have to boot the software up again.
Just wanted to check you know what I mean by "standby". When you flip the off button up quickly and the PSP goes off (into standby), - as opposed to holding it up where it goes off completely and you have to boot the software up again.
Yes, that's what I thought you meant.
I generally use my PSP whilst using an external power source (such as a car adapter or mains power) although I recently invested in a higher capacity battery which, to be frank, has been a complete waste of money.
I bought a 3600mAh off a seller on eBay, it holds a charge for far less time than the genuine 1800mAh from Sony!! Lesson learnt, eBay, schmeeBay .... Stick to genuine everytime!
... just thought I'd share that pearl of wisdom
Yes, that's what I thought you meant.
I generally use my PSP whilst using an external power source (such as a car adapter or mains power) although I recently invested in a higher capacity battery which, to be frank, has been a complete waste of money.
I bought a 3600mAh off a seller on eBay, it holds a charge for far less time than the genuine 1800mAh from Sony!! Lesson learnt, eBay, schmeeBay .... Stick to genuine everytime!
... just thought I'd share that pearl of wisdom
Yes I learnt the same thing with memory cards! OK it had the capacity it stated, but was not really Sony brand (even though it was a pretty good copy look wise) and was a lot slower!
handyman
30-06-2008, 11:33
It plugs into the mini USB socket on the PSP. Just wondering if a separate receiver can be used, as it'd be no good to me if not - I have a heat reflecting windscreen and the GPS signal can't penetrate it. I ahve to use a separate one.
You might not find that an issue with new chip sets. Most will work from the glove box now :-)
kryogenik
30-06-2008, 12:22
You might not find that an issue with new chip sets. Most will work from the glove box now :-)
Funny you should say that. My mate had a BT receiver paired with his N95 and was getting a signal indoors. I couldn't work it out..
That good now are they?
Graham M
30-06-2008, 13:01
Most GPS receivers I've ever used will get a signal indoors, it just takes ages to acquire.
kryogenik
30-06-2008, 13:16
Most GPS receivers I've ever used will get a signal indoors, it just takes ages to acquire.
I don't know enough about recent technology to be honest. All I know is bought a BT GPS receiver in 2004 when TomTom really started being popular and easy enough to sort out on PDAs and Symbian phones and the rule was 'line of sight' then. I had presumed this hadn't changed. I guess the receivers are much more sensitive and/or the high end components are cheaper to acquire now.
Yes I learnt the same thing with memory cards! OK it had the capacity it stated, but was not really Sony brand (even though it was a pretty good copy look wise) and was a lot slower!
Again, lesson learmt the hard way, still use the card but primarily for storing non-essential stuff as I don't trust it at all, besides that it feels as though it's been made out of a very flimsy plastic and has been superglued together as it came apart on me
---------- Post added at 17:35 ---------- Previous post was at 17:32 ----------
I don't know enough about recent technology to be honest. All I know is bought a BT GPS receiver in 2004 when TomTom really started being popular and easy enough to sort out on PDAs and Symbian phones and the rule was 'line of sight' then. I had presumed this hadn't changed. I guess the receivers are much more sensitive and/or the high end components are cheaper to acquire now.
Or is it that there are more satellites in orbit that can be used? I heard recently of another one that had been sent up, primarily for GPS use
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